State media blames Google for porn
The government's Internet cleansing is a CCTV attack on Google China for pornographic content.
« June 7, 2009 - June 13, 2009 | Main | June 21, 2009 - June 27, 2009 »
June 19, 2009
Foreign hacks in China before 1949
An extract from Paul French's new book about foreign journalists in China from 1820 to 1949, a colorful lot -- the exquisite Emily Hahn and her gibbon (left) are two of the many characters in the book. See also video interview with French.
Western socialists slug it out over 1989
In the June 4 issue of the Socialist Worker, Dennis Kosuth wrote Twenty years after Tiananmen Square, which read the events as a people's uprising. He included a sideswipe at the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has now responded with an article by Richard Becker:
Dennis Kosuth's "Twenty Years after Tiananmen," in the Socialist Worker, qualifies, in this writer's opinion, as the single worst article on the Chinese Revolution from an ostensibly "left" perspective in decades.
What is most striking about Kosuth's piece is its extraordinary hostility to the Chinese Revolution in its entirety....It has nothing good whatsoever to say about an epochal and truly heroic revolutionary process that spanned decades and rescued a quarter of humanity from colonialism, landlordism and starvation. Such an utter lack of positive sentiment toward a truly great revolution is really an expression of fundamental disloyalty to all revolutions.
See also: John Chan at the ICFI's World Socialist Web Site: Twenty years since the Tiananmen Square massacre, Origins and consequences of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Global Times demands the vote (sort of)
Peter Foster at his Telegraph blog notices the front page picture of the English Global Times yesterday: an Iranian woman with a "Where Is My Vote?" badge.
Senior Tianjin official sacked for graft
The Straits Times reports:
Mr Pi Qiansheng, a vice-ministerial official in the north-eastern city of Tianjin, was sacked from the Chinese Communist Party over graft allegations on Wednesday. This followed the removal of Mr Xu Zongheng, mayor of Shenzhen city, less than a week ago on similar accusations.
While observers believe that both cases are not linked, they said that these are part of a fresh move by the central government to target provincial leaders.
June 18, 2009
Xanliq madrasa demolished
The New Dominion reports that the Xanliq madrasa in Kashgar has been torn down as part of a "renewal" of the old city:
Mahmud al-Kashgari, the 11th-century scholar who compiled the Dīwānu l-Luġat al-Turk, is said to have studied at the Xanliq Madrasa in its heyday. In the 1860s, following a lengthy period of decline at the Xanliq Madrasa and in the Islamic scholarly community in East Turkestan in general, a wealthy merchant from Atush named Abdurusulbay funded its renovation. In exchange, the Xanliq Madrasa was to host primary schools funded by local luminaries. In 1883, it became home to the first experimental school in Xinjiang to mix Islamic and "scientific" curricula. This was founded by Abdurusulbay's grandsons, Bawudunbay and Hüsäyinbay Musabayov. Although that school was short-lived, its successor, Atush's Hüsäyniyä School, produced generations of students educated using modern methods. It also spawned a broad-reaching network of similar schools that played a major organizing role in pre-1949 social and political movements.
Tear down this cyberwall!
Nicholas Kristof wants Barack Obama to support an "Internet freedom initiative" that would include $50 million in appropriations for censorship-evasion technologies to help netizens in places like Iran and China access websites blocked by the authorities.
The secrets of the US Expo 2010 pavilion
The murky circumstances behind the (lack of a) United States pavilion at Shanghai's Expo 2010 remain secret after a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the Action Plan was denied, Adam Minter writes:
Late last week, the citizen who made the FOIA request contacted State for an update. On June 11, he was told that "it takes an average of 333 days for a case to be processed." Which means, if the request is approved, we might know by Thanksgiving (late November) the rules under which the authorized US pavilion group are/were operating.
Just to be clear: this isn't a top-secret document. It's not a torture memo (those were obtained via FOIA requests, by the way); it's not a national security briefing. It is a set of rules governing a pavilion for a fair. So why on Earth won't the State Department and/or the authorized group consent to its release?
Uighurs wary of move to Palau
The AP reports that although Palau has agreed to resettle some of the Uighurs held in Guantanamo, the men are not enthusiastic about going:
The Uighurs appear reluctant to temporarily resettle in Palau, said Joshua Koshiba, who leads a committee on U.S.-Palau relations. He has been in contact with the team since their trip.
Possibly only one Uighur wants to move to Palau, he said, without providing details of the discussions.
"You and me, we thought this was between the U.S. and Palau," Koshiba said. "But they have their own lawyers, and they have rights."
June 17, 2009
'The west should heed advice from China's bank regulators'
Arthur Kroeber in FT Dragonbeat:
[T]wo clear messages emerged from the cogent presentations by Chinese speakers [at a recent International Institute of Finance meeting].
First, China provides some useful lessons for western governments as they contemplate how to redesign their financial regulatory systems. Second, the prospects for significant financial-sector reform within China are rapidly brightening.
Gang bosses Hammerhead and Spicy Qin on trial
From AP / L.A. Times:
Scores of police gripping black clubs guarded a courthouse in southern China on Tuesday -- the first day of a trial for two alleged gangster bosses, the "Hammerhead" and "Spicy Qin," accused of using violence to build an empire that included everything from underground casinos to cement factories, truck lines and poultry markets.
More in Chinese, with pictures here.
Why is Li Yuanzhong so important?
Tim Hathaway blogs about attending a legal discussion session that addressed the case of a man killed when a bicyclist fleeing from the police struck his ladder.
The guards were chasing the bicyclist because a policeman was running behind shouting, "Stop that man! Stop that man!" ("抓住他！抓住他！"). He had chased the bicyclist from a hospital around the corner. This was the second time in less than ten minutes that he had chased someone down like this. According to reports, the policeman regularly waited near the hospital entrance for bicyclists who gave rides to elderly people. He would subject them to a fine or take a fee to make their trouble go away. So what exactly is the policeman guilty of?
Several legal scholars from Beijing University, Tsinghua University and Renimin University of China gathered on Sunday, June 14 to discuss Li Yuanzhong. They met in a small conference room with several media and the Li family's legal team in attendance.
Rules for sex change operations
From The China Daily:
To change gender in China costs more than money. One must be free of a criminal record and be single if he or she wants to have a sex change, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday in a new regulation.
Other conditions include having lived publicly as the other gender for more than two years, at least five years of unwavering desire to change, more than one year of psychotherapy and a commitment by local police to issue a new ID card after the operation.
The ministry posted the regulation online to solicit opinions from its local bureaus, which are due by July 10.
June 16, 2009
Desertification in Inner Mongolia
Sean Gallagher at the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting takes some stunning but sad photographs in Inner Mongolia about grazing (or lack-thereof) and the erosion of nomadic culture since the 1980s.
China's legal system: mentally unsound
From Peter Foster's Telegraph blog, on the Deng Yujiao case, who has been released without punishment today:
The government has pledged a fair trial, but without a independent legal adviser to represent and defending the accused throughout the process (Mr Xia didn't enter the scene until 21st May, 11 days after the killing) it's very difficult for the public to have faith in the process.
The hullabaloo is unsightly - it is, as some commenters on this blog have said, a kind of mob justice - but in the absence of a proper legal system I'd have to say it was better than the alternative, which is to see Miss Deng's case stitched up without a word.
Waitress who stabbed official walks free
From AFP:
A Chinese court convicted but did not punish a waitress for stabbing to death an official who demanded sex, state media said, in a case that sparked an Internet outcry about government sleaze.
Deng Yujiao, 21, was allowed to walk free after a short trial in the city of Badong in central China, the People's Daily said on its website.
Different rules for English and Chinese media
From The China Media Project:
[From an] article ... in the most recent issue of China Journalist (中国记者), a key official journal dealing with press policy...
....spell[ing] out the policy of targeting propaganda products for different audiences, with differing standards and approaches for Chinese and foreign readers...
... It should perhaps be taken as a reference next time Xinhua, China Daily or the English edition of the Global Times surprise us with ostensibly "open" coverage.
Green Dam filter not compulsory, unnamed MIIT official says
Following a week's worth of public outcry over a new content filter that all new PCs have to pre-load starting July 1, an anonymous official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told the China Daily that the software is not compulsory after all:
PC users have the "final say" over installing the filter and recent reports of the government compelling them to use the software was "a misunderstanding", the official said.
An expanded article quotes the official further distancing the government from the software:
"The blacklisted terms are not provided by the government," said the official.
"The government only purchased the software. It was the developer who decided what content needed to be blocked to protect youngsters from unhealthy information on the Internet."
The official also said that all security problems reported by the professors from University of Michigan had been fixed.
Educating kindness and charity
Wu Fei (吴非) uses the inclusion of Schindler's List in a middle school textbook as a starting point for a discussion of the problems with onscreen violence, and the need for kindness and understanding to be part of childhood education.
Something we haven't seen for over four hundred years
Evan Osnos talks to Ben Simpendorfer, chief China Economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland based in Hong Kong, about the interaction between the Chinese and Arab worlds:
The Arabs are hungry for "Made in China" goods. Households in Dubai and Riyadh have money to spend as a result of the rise in oil prices. But Chinese goods are also priced right for poorer households in Cairo and Damascus. I've been shopping for digital cameras with Arab friends and I can't explain their delight at being able to afford something once considered a luxury. But cheap goods are only part of the story. Visas are also important. It is difficult for Arab traders to visit Europe or the United States ever since the events of 2001. Their visa applications are either denied or take weeks to process. But they can typically turn up at their local Chinese embassy and receive a visa in a day or less.
June 15, 2009
The rise of electric bicycles in China
Austin Ramzy in Time:
...Cars clog intersection and expressways. Their exhaust clouds the sky and the air is full of the sound of horns. But zipping through the congestion is the vanguard of another transportation revolution: vehicles that use no gas, emit no exhaust and are so quiet they can surprise the unwary pedestrian.
Green Damned
By government order, all new PCs sold after July 1 must pre-load the Green Dam content filter. People are complaining: it doesn't work, it's paternalistic. Xinhua blames the media. Netizens respond with the "Green Dam Girl."
So Rock! says "never mind the machine"
So Rock! magazine slaps a tank on the back cover of its June issue.
Naked escorts at a karaoke bar
A reporter for a Wuhan-based newspaper goes undercover to a karaoke joint where hostesses will strip for a fee.
Beijing-based digital music label celebrates one year in business
From the Outdustry blog:
MicroMu is our attempt at a sustainable record label model in an environment where people, by and large, aren't used to paying for music. The solution? Give music (and lots of other things) away for free, build a loyal community around it all, and then support this (largely) through a partnership with a brand who shares your audience. Or, as we say in our label intro:
"MicroMu is an experimental, sponsor-driven, free-to-user record label model designed to discover new talent, create original music and reward artists in seemingly impossible conditions."
You can download a 1 year anniversary digital album from the blog post on Outdustry.
Film makers are working in a changed market
Clifford Coonan writes from the Shanghai Film Festival for Variety about the growth of China's domestic film market:
The issue of how to nurture the strong growth in the biz is one of the key themes at the Shanghai fest this year. The fest has long been seen as a provincial affair, but the growing influence of the Chinese film biz means it is of greater interest than ever this year to the biz abroad.
One of the main reasons why Chinese cinema is booming is improved distribution, and the forum featured presentations by two key cinema chain figures, Chen Guowei of Wanda Cinema Line and Wu Hehu of Shanghai United Line.
Hu Jintao in Russia for acronym meetings
Xinhua:
Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Yekaterinburg in central Russia on Sunday for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and a meeting of BRIC countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China...
...Founded in 2001, the SCO consists of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran are observers of the organization.
Police use chopper for opium poppy search near Beijing
From The People's Daily:
A helicopter was used for the first time on Saturday to help local police in poppy plantation hunting in suburb Beijing.
The copter, with experts onboard, hovered around the mountainous areas in Yanqing District and sent video images of the ground back to the headquarters...
...The first hunt, which lasted about half an hour, found no poppy plantation in the region...
...Some poppy growers, who plant poppies to make drugs, always choose the remote and sparsely populated areas at the border of Beijing and the neighboring Hebei Province," Zhao said.
According to China's law, growing more than 500 poppies is a crime. But several villages in suburb Beijing has a tradition of growing poppies mostly because villagers love the plant's colorful blossoms or they use poppies as medicine ingredients.
June 14, 2009
Shanghai gay pride: muted pink
Paul Midler:
Hundreds turned out for China's very first "Gay Pride Festival," and the event has been touted as a sign of greater openness in China.While it is certainly nice that an event was pulled off, I have my doubts about how much it means for freedom in China.